The Yugas
It would be well to note here the cyclical regard for time in traditional Hindu thought. It was written in the Vishnu Purana that time is infinite and consists of endless repetitions of the four great ages, or “yugas.” A brief overview follows:
The first yuga is the Satya, or Krita, Yuga. It is the Golden Age of the world, where there is harmony, no vices or disease, and happiness reigns. In the next one, the Treta Yuga, there is a decline of human ethics and Vedic sacrifices are needed to nullify selfishness and reward-seeking on the part of humans. The third epoch is the Dvapara Yuga, where there is further decline, with diseases and catastrophes occurring. Finally there is the Kali Yuga, where there is extreme human misery characterized by fear and anxiety, hunger and disease. Each age is less long than the last, with the Kali Yuga being about one quarter as long as the Golden Age, which then returns to begin the cycle again. It has been popularly calculated that our present time happens to fall within the last stages of a Kali Yuga.
Within such a philosophy, it is naturally assumed that, “The wise man is aghast at being caught on this relentless, repetitive wheel of time…his ardent desire is liberation from this circular time process into the plane of eternity.” (Religions Of The World, 1969:413)
Some major influences contributing to “mainstream” Hinduism have been illustrated in the preceding paragraphs by the transition from the Vedic to the Epic and Classical Ages, culminating in the Golden Age of Indian culture. The Golden Age flourished under the Gupta dynasty, in power from the third century A.D. until invasions by central Asian peoples brought it into decline by 550 A.D.
During the first millennium A.D. when Hinduism was achieving full expression, artists rose to glory and learned Brahmins studied the Vedas as well as later writings, birthing philosophies of logic and the Dharma. The first major university was created, which became a famous center of Buddhist learning until it was destroyed by the Muslims at the end of the millennium.
Indeed, the Postclassical epoch (approximately 1100-1800 A.D.) “witnessed less innovative religious impulses than the preceding epoch of classical Hinduism or the succeeding one of neo-Hinduism.” (Religions Of The World 1969:591) Certainly religious thought was influenced by the rise of Buddhism and the Muslim invasions, but many of the great Indian philosophers who followed would base their philosophies on the treatises of non-dualism growing out of the Vedas and the traditions honoring those principles.